Chirps from Center Ice

Real quick postgamer out of me tonight because I have work in the morning. Eric Tangradi had a break out game tonight with the first hat trick of the season for WBS in a 5-1 romp over the Toronto Marlies.

John Curry vs. Jussi Rynnas this evening. Geoff Walker was the scratch as Keven Veilleux was back in the lineup.

First period: Tangradi got the party started at 1:17 when he went five-hole on Rynnas. I didn’t realize at the time but Wilkes-Barre really dominated the Marlies tonight in all aspects of the game. At 7:54 of the first Jess Boulerice scored from the high slot to make it 2-0 and, at the time, the shots on goal were 15-3 in favor of the Penguins. Later, Brett Sterling scored a goal which should be on the AHL highlight reels for the rest of the season. A shot blocker-side of Rynnas which struck his water bottle and sent it flying. Not just that, but the top came off! With 3:58 left to play in the game, Wilkes-Barre already put 20 shots on Rynnas. As soon as I noticed that, Justin Hodgson for the Marlies scored to give the Marlies life. That goal was due to yet another defensive breakdown by Steve Wagner. The worst possible time for the Penguins and the best possible time for the Marlies. Brett Sterling went to the box for tripping and the Pens and their 16th ranked penalty kill disposed of it and the period would end 3-1, with a 20-8 shots advantage for WBS.

Second period: Ben Scrivens would relieve Rynnas in goal. Tangradi again at 6:46. Joe Vitale dispossessed a Marlie defenseman and went down on a 2 on 1 with Eric and the Big Dog buried it. Later in the period Darryl Boyce for Toronto would sit on a rough and Eric Tangradi would cause the lids to fly in Wilkes-Barre with a power play, hat trick goal. The period would end with the Pens leading the shot category by a 31-14 advantage.

Third period: No scoring. No penalties. Toronto had a bevy of opportunities to score, missing wide open net after wide open net. Other than the 5-1 lead, an otherwise boring period of hockey.

Joe Vitale, Brett Sterling and Eric Tangradi were +3 tonight and were your three stars in that order. Vitale is near the top of the league in +/- so I will have to see tomorrow where he shakes out. Dustin Jeffrey’s goal and point streak ended. It appears Toronto focused on him tonight and forgot about the rest of the Penguins. This is depth in action friends: Tangradi a four point night (3-1-4), Sterling a three point night (1-2-3). Vitale three assists.

Ex-Penguins Luca Caputi and Danny Richmond were pointless tonight. Caputi registered one shot on goal.

Around the East: Norfolk scores three goals in the third to tie the score at three only to lose in overtime to the Crunch 4-3. Hershey beat Albany 3-2. Referee Chris Brown’s arm got a workout tonight as there were 71 PIMs in that game.

Standings: With the win, WBS improves to 21-4 and 42 points, good for 1st in the division and conference. Overall tops by five points over the West Division leading San Antonio Rampage. Norfolk picks up the losers point with the OT loss to the Crunch, I think they overlooked Syracuse tonight for the meeting this weekend versus Wilkes-Barre / Scranton. Hershey is all of a sudden relevant again (when weren’t they?) in third with 31 points. Charlotte is idle with the same 31 points and sit fourth. Bingo is eight points back in fifth with 23 points. Albany has 22 points in sixth, Syracuse seventh with 22 points and Adirondack has been stuck on 8 points.

Travel day for the team tomorrow to Norfolk. Likely no updates from Bombulie or any other entity. I’ll try to think of something creative, but if not check us out here Friday afternoon for the Gameday post for Norfolk.

Let’s Go Pens!

I dogged it I must admit when drawing up the Gameday post for this game and “Why you should care”:

“Want to see them (the Pens) win? Come to the game tonight, Adirondack is a team in disarray…”

It takes a Bears fan in the comments section to remind me that Michael Leighton is down on a conditioning stint. I looked past that when writing up the Gameday and regret it. This was a trap game for Wilkes-Barre if there ever was one. John Curry opposed Leighton in the other net. No other lineup changes for Wilkes-Barre. Hutchinson out with injury and Veilleux scratched. Nick Johnson wore the other “A” tonight with Hutch out of the lineup.

First period: Eric Wellwood scored at 8:01 to give the Phantoms a 1-0 lead. He stopped, then put the puck five hole on Curry. Bad goal for John but nothing circumstance wise you really can do. From the get go however, the Pens were steamrolling the Phantoms with chance after chance and a lot of time was spent in the Pens offensive zone. Leighton was up to the task, stopping everything he saw. Greg Moore sat for a hooking call and as his penalty expired, Eric Tangradi was screening Leighton and Dustin Jeffrey (who else) scored to tie the game at one. Period would end with a 15-4 shots advantage for Wilkes-Barre.

Second period: John Curry was up to the task tonight, flat robbing Greg Moore not once but twice on the left face off dot. Leighton was flat out keeping Adirondack relevant as he was just a NHL caliber goaltender, scratch that, an Eastern Conference Champion, Stanley Cup Final caliber goaltender keeping his team in the game. I tweeted that Wilkes-Barre would need a dirty goal to beat him.

Third period: The aforementioned dirty goal would not come until 15:00 of the third period when Tim Wallace absolutely undresses Danny Syvret and beats Leighton to make it 2-1. I don’t think Michael expected that out of Wallace either. I know I didn’t. 1:46 later, Eric Tangradi scored from the same angle Chris Collins did the night before on the goal line to make it 3-1. Joe Vitale would sit for a late hooking penalty. Adirondack would use it’s timeout and pull Leighton and on the 6 on 4, AHL sniper Denis Hamel one time a bomb to the net which would be tipped by Ben Holmstrom. Adirondack would empty its net again but Wilkes-Barre would hold on for a 3-2 victory.

Robert Bortuzzo, Tim Wallace and Dustin Jeffrey were the three stars. Hershey’s Andrew Gordon went pointless as the Bears blanked the Senators 4-0 tonight so with tonight’s goal and assist, Dustin Jeffrey is tied for the league lead in points with Andrew Gordon. I will have to ask Pens beat writer Jonathan Bombulie when the last time someone from WBS was tops in the league in scoring.

Around the Division: You already know about Hershey, Albany blanked Rochester 2-0. Check out who got the game winning goal in that one. Norfolk storms back from a 3-0 deficit to come back and win 4-3 in a shootout over the Portland Pirates. Arrrgh!

Standings: WBS is first in the league to 40 points. Norfolk is second with 32 points. Hershey and Charlotte are tied with 29 points in third and fourth respectively. Bad weekend for the Binghamton Senators, two games and zero points. They are in fifth with 23 points. Albany has 20 points for sixth, Syracuse 18 for seventh and the Phantoms are last with 8 points.

Big stick tap to Tim McManus tonight who was not at the game but encouraged his followers on Twitter to follow me for the tweet by tweet. I appreciate it so much.

Pens back to work Wednesday at home against the Toronto Marlies. Tomorrow I will spend my day watching parts of all 8 AHL games.

Go Pens.

Business handled tonight. A 4-2 Wilkes-Barre win and the way you are supposed to handle a team who is four spots below you in the standings. If we somehow lose to Binghamton tonight, every team in the league is looking for the game tape to break down and try and find a way to duplicate it.

Let’s get this right out of the way: Max Talbot took a shot in practice today in Pittsburgh off of the foot / ankle area and is bruised. He will travel with the team tomorrow to Columbus, but head coach Dan Bylsma said today that if he cannot go either Dustin Jeffrey, Nick Johnson or Brett Sterling may get the call to Columbus tomorrow. Evgeni Malkin was given a “maintenance” day and Brooks Orpik missed practice due to illness. Max can still play if he is able, apparently. We’ll have to see.

Regardless, back to the matter at hand. Brad Thiessen v. Barry Brust tonight. Chris Collins returned to the lineup. Andrew Hutchinson was out due to injury and Keven Veilleux of all people was the scratch tonight with Joey Haddad. Bryan Lerg skated tonight.

First period: While Corey Potter and Zack Smith were in the box for separate slash and rough penalties respectively, Joey Mormina put a shot on Brust’s pads which kicked out to Joe Vitale on the doorstep and gave WBS the 1-0 lead. I find AHL stats interesting. Normally something the casual fan just ignores, I eat these stats up. That said, WBS is 11-3 when it scores first. You will be seeing me quoting a ton of these stats both here on the blog and on Twitter anymore now that I have found the AHL Media Kits online. Anyway, later in the period while Joe Vitale was sitting for a hooking call Dustin Jeffrey comes in shorthanded and snipes an NHL caliber goal. It was an NHL goal scorer’s goal. Dustin is just playing on another planet right now.

Second period: There was 1:45 of Brian Strait cross check penalty kill the Pens had to erase. Shots on goal at this point for Binghamton was only 3. Not only did they kill the penalty but they did not allow a single shot on Thiessen. An Eric Gryba hook saw Nick Johnson draw iron on the ensuing power play. I thought at the time that if we cashed in on the man advantage, the game would be over at that point. We didn’t score. In fact, we let Binghamton right back into it at that point via Bobby Butler’s goal. I called it a ridiculous goal on Twitter for two reasons. 1) It was a great goal by Butler, 2) The game was half over and it was Binghamton’s fifth shot of the game. If Wilkes-Barre is going to draw a comparison of being truly an elite team, they cannot let any of this happen. Especially against a team who, on paper, you should destroy. Well, apparently Binghamton didn’t get the memo and about 7 minutes or so later Kaspars Daugavins tied the game right at the end of the second period.

Third period: Chris Collins stole the show. Scored on Brust from an insane angle to give the Pens the 3-2 lead then pots the empty net goal with under a minute left to play. The only thing I did notice this period is that Coach Hynes had Dustin Jeffrey playing in the spot for the injured Andrew Hutchinson. That’s right, the left defensemen. To nitpick on Dustin, he played a bit shaky as a rearguard, but that is nitpicking with a capital N.

Final shots on goal would end up 29-14 for Wilkes-Barre. Three Stars were Dustin Jeffrey, Bobby Butler and Chris Collins. That’s all for Bingo this year at the Arena. Unless we see them in the playoffs which, despite the win, is NOT something I want right now.

Around the Division: Hershey beat Albany 3-2 in what was described by observers present at the game a really competitive game by the Devils. Nice to see I suppose. Andrew Gordon went pointless, so Jeffrey and Corey Locke close the gap on the points lead on him. Norfolk destroyed Atlantic Division leading Manchester tonight 7-2. Mike Angelidis had 5 points (2-3-5) and was +5 but was outdone by recently demoted Mathieu Roy’s +6. Yikes. Rochester defeated Syracuse 6-5. Adirondack and Charlotte were idle tonight.

Standings: At 19-4, we pace the entire American Hockey League with the best record. Norfolk sits second in the division, leapfrogging the idle Checkers with 30 points. Charlotte sits idle till Sunday in third with 29 points. Hershey is in fourth with 27 points, Bingo with 23 points, Albany and Syracuse sixth-seventh with 18 points apiece and tomorrow’s opponent Adirondack will be looking to get to 10 points tomorrow when they come to town to play us. Good luck.

I looked up who the ref is going to be tomorrow. His name is Graham Skilliter. Having never heard of him before and him not being listed on the AHL’s On Ice Officials Roster I did some research on him. He is a Saskatooner from the Dub. This by my research is his first AHL game tomorrow. Had a nasty accident while working a WHL game this year. I don’t have a book on him on how he calls a game. I guess we find out tomorrow. If you don’t know me, I am intrigued by referees and how each has his own personality calling games. With Jeff Smith, you need to bleed for him to raise his arm. With the now retired Nygel Pelletier, if you were on the ice and ten feet away from the play you’d get called for hooking. I like to know these things going in to a game.

Gameday post will be up at 3:30 tomorrow with the newly added Media Kit link. Educate yourself.

Go Pens.

When you are an elite AHL team like the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins are shaping up to be you need to take advantage of opportunities when the situation calls for it.

Pens beat writer Jonathan Bombulie ran a story today about how the Pens penalty killing was a dismal 20th overall in the 30 team AHL after being at or near the top just a month earlier.

Tonight the penalty killing was a perfect 4 for 4 tonight. The power play was 3 for 6 in a 5-1 Wilkes-Barre romp over the Trenton er, Albany Devils. One would have to count how many guys are up from the ECHL playing in Albany right now, as tonight just didn’t seem fair from a Penguins fan perspective.

Dave Caruso v. John Curry tonight. Lineup wise, Joey Haddad was back in over Bryan Lerg from Sunday. No Chris Collins, as he is expected back by the weekend.

First period: Right off the bat, John Curry was on his game. He gloved a Vladimir Zharkov shot. All things considered, if Curry does not make that glove save and Albany jumps out to a quick 1-0 lead then tonight may very well be a different story. Regardless, Trevor Kell took a holding call, then on the ensuing power play Dustin Jeffrey looked to have skated past every single Albany Devil and just fires a wrister at Dave Caruso to give the 1-0 lead. John Curry picked up the secondary assist on that one. Then with about 12 minutes to go in the first, Michael Swift scored for Albany to tie the game at one apiece. For as weird as the Curry assist was on the Jeffrey goal, familiar pest Louis Robitaille collected the second assist on the Swift goal. At this point in the game, we looked to be better off killing a penalty than playing 5 on 5 even strength hockey. Matt Anderson would sit for interference and Dustin Jeffrey would make the Devils pay :17 later. Soon after Andrew Hutchinson would get injured and would not return the rest of the game. The first period would end 2-1.

Lots of chatter back and forth between all of you regarding the play of Dustin Jeffrey and whether Wilkes-Barre fans need to worry about him getting the call to Pittsburgh to stay. Here are my thoughts on this. If Pittsburgh’s third line of Chris Conner Mark Letestu and Tyler Kennedy are not as successful as they have been of recent, then there is a case to call Jeffrey up. Since the third line is often time the best Pittsburgh line of the night, Jeffrey remains here in Wilkes-Barre. Plus, @CxJamesx9 replied to me on Twitter that when Jordan Staal finally does return from injury there will not be any room for him at all.

Second period: Pens would pull away this period. Brett Sterling and Tim Wallace would score :15 apart from one another to make it a 4-1 Wilkes-Barre lead. Dave Caruso would get yanked after that but I found it funny that Tom Grace, who was doing PxP tonight, completely missed that until well after Caruso was on the bench. Even after he was pulled and a random Penguin would fire a shot, he would say that Caruso made the save. He’s human. Regardless, it was Frazee’s first action since being injured in Wilkes-Barre a few weeks ago. Kory Nagy would sit for a cross-check and Robert Bortuzzo would snipe from the blueline to make it 5-1 and it was all she wrote. A complete lock down and shut down period by Wilkes-Barre also, as Albany would go 12:45 before registering a shot on goal.

The third period was uneventful as there was no scoring. I don’t know if it was because we wanted to preserve the lead, work on different hybrid things or just not embarrass the opponent or what, but it would end a 5-1 victory. Grace mentioned that the Penguins own the best record in North American hockey which reaches beyond the ranks of the American Hockey League.

• Big nights from Corey Potter and Steve Wagner, both had two assists apiece.
• If Hutchinson can’t go this weekend because of injury, we are in good hands with Joey Mormina. I have been itching to see him in the lineup.
• Three Stars were Michael Swift, Brett Sterling and Dustin Jeffrey.

No one in the East skated tonight, so WBS sits atop the division still with an 18-4 record. We have 36 points to second place Charlotte’s 29. The Checkers do not skate again until Sunday home against the Crunch. Third place Norfolk plays Friday in Manchester then Sunday in Portland. ManchVegas is tops in the Atlantic Division and Portland was tops before being passed by the Monarchs so those are games that if you are into wondering how the chase team fares against top competition from another division its worth keeping your eye on.

Binghamton in Friday for their last regular season visit to Wilkes-Barre Township. Will be interesting how we come out and play against the only fly in the ointment so far this campaign.

Go Pens.

AHL Live had technical difficulties so I did not see one second of live action today. The problem was not just me, but anyone who wanted to see the game.

Regardless, a gritty, hard fought 4-2 Penguins win this afternoon in Springfield.

Brad Thiessen vs. Gustav Wesslau. Bryan Lerg made his return to the lineup over Joey Haddad.

First thing I will say is that Tom Grace on radio this afternoon really gave high marks to the play of Keven Veilleux. In the first, Keven worked a puck to Ryan Craig and Craig cashed in to give the Pens a 1-0 lead. Later, Jesse Boulerice took a cross checking penalty and Tomas Kubalik scored for the 22nd ranked Springfield power play. The Pens penalty kill unit used to be tops in the league, I will have to check this week to see where they fall in now.

Second period: Pens have all the momentum in the world, overwhelming the Falcons at times, when all of a sudden out of the blue Tomas Kubalik scores again to give the Falcons a 2-1 lead. Again, I didn’t get to see a second of the game, but from what Tom Grace was telling us, it looked like you were just waiting for the Pens to explode on the Falcons and run away with it.

Well, with about five minutes left in the game, the bomb went off. Nick Johnson scored after he crashed the net. Tie game. The ensuing faceoff saw Steve Wagner fire a dart to the tape of Dustin Jeffrey who fired a wrister past Wesslau to put the Pens up 3-2. More praises for Veilleux, calling the game his most complete to date. Bryan Lerg then potted an empty netter to seal the deal for the Penguin and send the Falcons home disappointed in defeat.

Ryan Craig was the third star, Tomas Kubarlik the second for Springfield and Nick Johnson was the first. Really should have been Dustin Jeffrey the first star but it doesn’t matter. Wilkes-Barre is 17-4 and 5-0 vs. non-divisional opponents.

Around the East: Norfolk was shut out by Bridgeport, 3-0. Syracuse beat the Hamilton Bulldogs 3-2. The Hartford WolfPack er, Connecticut Whale, defeated the Adirondack Phantoms 3-0 and the Charlotte Checkers stormed back from a 2-1 deficit to beat Hershey 5-2.

Standings look like this: Wilkes-Barre leads the division with 34 points. Charlotte jumps over Norfolk and has 29 points to the Admirals 28. Hershey stays put in fourth with 25 points. The idle Senators remain in fifth with 23 points. Albany has 18 points in sixth, Syracuse in seventh with 18 points and Adirondack stays at 8 points in the East Division basement.

Pens get the day off Monday. I’ll have my First Quarter Grades ready for you tomorrow at 10 a.m. sharp. Please note they do not take into account the stats in this game, they only take into account the first 20 games. Should be fun for you all to read.

Go Pens.

Before we get going, let me know what you think of the new digs here at Chirps from Center Ice. We have a menu feature above and a cool e-mail subscription below. Good times.

Anyway the unstoppable Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins met an immovable force in Amerks goaltender Jacob Markstrom tonight. The more I sit and think about it I am comparing it to a playoff game for the Penguins. That kind of atmosphere too. Large crowd and a tight game. This one was a 4-3 Wilkes-Barre win.

John Curry vs. the aforementioned Jacob Markstrom. Joey Haddad was in for the injured Chris Collins. Apparently it’s bumps and or bruises, per the Bombulie blog recap.

First period: Referee Jamie Koharski gets Joe Vitale on a bush league slash call :56 seconds in. Evgeny Dadonov for Rochester nearly scores but misses a wide open net. Pens kill it. Later, Dustin Jeffrey scores a garbage goal in a scrum to put the Pens up 1-0. Soon after that, the fourth line again puts in work and Jesse Boulerice scored a goal. 2-0 Wilkes-Barre. At that moment, Boulerice and Eric Tangradi were tied in goals with three. Until, a Robert Bortuzzo blast from the point gets deflected in by the Big Dog. 3-0. At this point, I think it’s going to be a Wilkes-barre romp. It was certainly setting up to be that. The game is 10:52 old and it’s 3-0 Wilkes-Barre. Hold up though. Joey Haddad boards an Amerk and Clay Wilson scored to make it 3-1 going into the first intermission.

Second period: If you didn’t think Jesse Boulerice and Eric Selleck were going to fight tonight you were dead wrong. My YouTube skills leave much to be desired. Maybe you can help me out in the comments section on how to make this look better:

Anyway, that’s the best I can do for now. Kenndal McArdle was spotted holding Joe Vitale. As the Amerks killed it, he scored to make it 3-2. I tweeted that it wasn’t for a lack of effort, but WBS hadn’t found the killshot yet to bury the Amerks. After a Carl Sneep hook, Mike Kostka tied the game at three. During a penalty which saw Eric Selleck in the box for a roughing penalty, Jacob Markstrom made a glove save on a Steve Wagner wrister while he was being screened by Eric Tangradi. I suppose a goaltender can only do so much but imagine if Markstrom is on a good team? The second period would end tied at three.

Third period: I tweeted again that how the Penguins respond to the second period debacle in the first five minutes of the third period would dictate how the game would go for them. Well, welcome to the goal column Geoff Walker. The goal was assisted by Dustin Jeffrey and Tim Wallace. Radio said that we have an NHL player in Jeffrey playing on our AHL team. I cannot disagree with that statement one bit. The rest of the period was basically lockdown hockey. The shots on goal would end up favoring Wilkes-Barre 40-22. Rochester only took 4 shots on goal the entire third period (and also the second) so whatever was said in the locker room was well received by the defense.

The win puts us at 32 points. Tops in the league and still tops in the East, as it is really gearing up now.

Around the East: Braden Hotlby’s return to Hershey saw him shut out the Phantoms 4-0. Andrew Gordon scored another goal for the Bears. Hershey at 100% and Wilkes-Barre / Scranton at 100% will be a barnburner for sure when, yes I said when, these two teams meet in the playoffs. Meanwhile the Norfolk Admirals are tapping Bears fans and Penguins fans on the shoulder saying, “remember us?” as they cruised to a 5-2 victory over tomorrows opponent the Springfield Falcons. Watch out for Norfolk. Charlotte beat Worcester 4-2. Albany beat Binghamton 4-3. Please try to figure that one out if you can. Bingo gives us fits and Albany can’t run with us yet the Devils somehow manage to beat the Senators tonight. I will be scratching my head at that one all night for sure. Toronto beat Syracuse 2-1 in Joffrey Lupul’s debut conditioning stint for the Crunch. This next score isn’t the East but it’s some bit of history, Grand Rapids beat Chicago tonight by the score of 10-8. The League tweeted that the last time anything of this sort happened was in 1996 when Baltimore beat Binghamton by the same score.

Standings wise: WBS in first with 32 points. Norfolk in sole possession of second with 28. Charlotte in third with 27. Hershey has 25 points good for fourth. Bingo has 23 points in fifth. It drops way off after that. Albany in sixth with 18, Syracuse seventh with 16 and Adirondack still in last with a mere 8 points.

Report cards are done. They will debut on the blog here Monday at 10 a.m. They are based off of the last 20 games. Tonight was Game 20. It’ll be fun for you to read.

Again, let me know what you think of the new format here. E-mail me or leave me a comment in comments section. I am always looking for input to make things better.

Go Pens.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Missed most of the visual action tonight as I was coming back from New Jersey but had the first half of the game on radio, and the second half on AHL Live. Hope you all followed @PSBJoyOnTheSens this evening. Going to do my best to recap this game, a 5-2 Binghamton win.

Brad Thiessen v. Barry Brust. No lineup changes for the Pens, Haddad was the extra forward in warmups.

First period: Five shots in the first shift by the Pens. Nick Johnson slash at :59, Jeffrey denied shorthanded. Then, Eric Tangradi scored from The Ticket and Joe Vitale. Later, Tangradi fought Colin Greening. Nick Johnson again for cross checking, this time Binghamton cashed in, Derek Smith. Period would end tied at one and also in shots at eleven.

Second period: Andre Benoit sat for a hook, Ryan Keller soon followed and :16 was all The Ticket needed into the 5 on 3 to give the Pens a 2-1 lead. Brian Strait would sit later for interference, then Erik Condra tied it for the Senators. Shots on goal through the second were 34-23 Wilkes-Barre.

Third period: Pens line change. Just like Chris Collins did last night, Derek Smith stayed out, and danced around a defender and made it 3-2. The Pens D were burned three straight shifts by the Sens to start the third. Later, Geoff Kinrade, who must love playing against us, scored to make the score 4-2. Bobby Butler took a hooking call, then Steve Wagner pretty much signed a :02 contract for the Binghamaton Senators and just gave away a puck which Jim O’Brien gladly cashed in on to put the game out of reach at 5-2.

Wilkes-Barre would bombard 54 shots at Barry Brust, who was on fire again tonight for Binghamton. He is 8-7 now for them. The issue should be what happens when Mike Brodeur comes back from his concussion. Will Brust get tired and fizzle out? We’ll have to see.

Argument can be made that the Pens flat weren’t ready to play tonight. Jonathan Bombulie was at the game tonight, so check out his blog later for analysis.

Three stars were Brust, Condra and Derek Smith.

We were the only game in town tonight. No other AHL team played. We remain in first with 30 points. Bingo leapfrogs Hershey for fourth place with 23 points.

Binghamton / Wilkes-Barre / Scranton is a bonafide rivalry again and I love it. We are 2-2 against this team. Bingo has beaten us twice now. December 3 in Wilkes-Barre should be really, really fun.

Pens get the day off tomorrow. I am going to start working on my first quarter report cards as Game 20 is Saturday vs. Rochester. Barring any huge huge news, it’ll drop on Monday. Probably early in the moring at like 10 a.m.